WE ARE STILL HERE (WASH)

WE ARE STILL HERE was a queer freedom dream, psychological thriller, and public process drama that imagines new futures amid the red scare of current political reality, developed & devised by The Seeing Place and engaging interactive media through Max/MSP.

brynn asha walker was the lead writer, game designer, and also a performer/facilitator and worldbuilder, alongside ari glenn mombrea who was the lead art & UX designer and director. other performer/facilitators and devisers were Sami Binder, Reesa Graham, Lars Montanaro, Brynne O’Rourke. the project was developed with mentorship from Chris Vine, Crystal Skillman, and Jennifer McCoy. performed throughout 2023 with video footage recorded by Jay Reinier on December 9th, 2023 at PIMA Lab, NYC.

in the drama, we would invite participants into a fictional reality (at that time before Project 2025 was public knowledge) of a red wave that drove severe queer and trans persecution, a recent sprawl of arrests, and rumors of governmental conversion camps. in the drama, we all stepped into role as community members of an underground activist group centering queer and trans affirmation and allyship. during the drama, which had several possible endings, we were infiltrated by a person in duress who was spying for the government, which led to a decision to stay or go to a "safe" location somewhere remote. those who chose to stay were met by an officer who arrested them and questioned their activities, asking them to give up the names of other people at the meeting or risk persecution. those who chose to leave either made it to the remote area or not, depending upon whether they decided by a vote to take in the needy person infiltrating or not. those who made it to the remote location found out they had been somewhat tricked into a "caring" community that was approaching conversion in "ethical" ways. we basically maintained a dilemma over whether to stay low and conform, to fight the system and risk governmental retaliation, or to flee to a more remote area or another country.